Graduate Student Council Votes To Cut Student Fee Waiver

Graduate Student Council representatives voted Wednesday night to eliminate the option of waiving a student term bill fee that funds the organization and graduate student-run events.

Currently, students in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences are billed a $25 “Graduate Student Council fee” each year that goes toward funding the GSC’s meetings, as well as conferences and summer research grants.

At the meeting of the Graduate Student Council, students discussed and voted on a number of measures, including an activities fee and whether to support graduate students part of a movement to unionize. By Savannah I. Whaley

GSAS students could waive the fee this year by sending a signed letter to the Council before mid-September, according to the GSAS student handbook. GSC representatives voted mostly in favor of removing that option, with only six voicing opposition votes, and two abstaining.

The approved resolution exempts graduate students who can demonstrate a financial hardship in paying the fee.

During the resolution’s debate period, one representative asked the Council’s leadership to define the circumstances that constitute a financial hardship. In response, Vice President John Gee said students’ financial situations will be examined on an individual basis.

This is not the first time council representatives have discussed limiting the term bill fee waiver. Graduate students who waive the $25 fee are ineligible to receive grant money or participate in “GSC programs and services,” according to the council’s website. In a meeting this October, some representatives complained that there is a lack of enforcement for the rule, according to the council’s public meeting notes.

The College bills undergraduates a similar $75 term bill fee that helps fund the Undergraduate Council. Although previous UC leaders have proposed raising the fee, the $75 figure has remained stagnant for nine years. Undergraduates may waive the charge by submitting a letter to a central accounting office, according to the University Student Financial Services’ website.

—Staff writer Jalin P. Cunningham can be reached at jalin.cunningham@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @JalinCunningham.